Karditsa

The residents of the municipality of Palamas in Karditsa, central Greece, took the initiative to safeguard their community in light of the new wave of bad weather, storm Elias, announced the president of the local community Dimitris Tsigardas on Tuesday. 

The Ministry of Rural Development and Food estimates that damage caused by the Daniel weather system to crop and animal production on the Thessaly Plain, a region famous for its agricultural production, will be three times worse than that which resulted from Ianos in 2020.

Some 73,000 hectares across Thessaly are under water, with 50,000-55,000 sown with cotton. 

The city of Volos and the villages of Mount Pelion in central Greece were hit by severe floods on Tuesday afternoon. Furthermore, as early as Tuesday, or possibly even before, staying informed about areas at risk from upcoming severe storms could have been as simple as tuning in to weather reports on television.

The death toll from storm Daniel that began battering central Greece on Monday rose to 10 on Friday while four people were still missing, according to Climate Crisis and Civil Protection Minister Vassilis Kikilias.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis arrived in Karditsa shortly after 11 a.m. Friday, as he is conducting an on-site inspection of the areas in Thessaly, central Greece, that have been affected by the severe weather brought on by Storm Daniel.

Mitsotakis visited the city's stadium, where he met with people who had been evacuated from their flooded villages.

Three years after the destruction wrought by the Ianos weather front, the nightmare of catastrophic floods returned to the Thessalian Plain, submerging entire villages under tons of water, destroying infrastructure, livestock and crops.

Residents in several municipalities of Karditsa, a regional unit in central Greece, had to climb on the roofs of their houses on Thursday morning to avoid rising waters that gathered in the pain after torrential rains hit the area and nearby regions in the last 48 hours.

Three people have reportedly died as a result of the Daniel weather system which has been battering many parts of Greece for more than two days.

Two Austrian newlyweds were also believed to be missing after the holiday accommodation they were staying at was swept away on Tuesday in the Pelion region.

All traffic on the Athens-Thessaloniki motorway from Nikea in Larissa to the border with Magnesia regional unit has been suspended due to flooding on the highway.

Thessaly regional police directorate ordered the road to be closed in both directions between the two points.

The death toll from severe rainstorms that lashed parts of Greece, Türkiye and Bulgaria increased to 15 on Thursday after rescue teams in the three neighboring countries recovered seven more bodies.